Zhen-Khana Book One: Faith
by Arinlianette
Summary: After losing her scholarship, Zhen-Khana Zu goes to live with her mother and younger sister in Republic City where the new Avatar has arrived for airbending training. With the sudden appearance of the Equalists, she must help keep her family safe as well as the rest of the city and Korra. OC/? maybe OC/Bolin. Rating subject to change.


**Disclaimer: _Legend of Korra/Avatar: The Last Airbender _belongs to Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko, and Nickelodeon.**

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><p>Book One: Faith<p>

Chapter One

Zhen-Khana raced through the marble hallways of the Republic City Academy, knocking into students and sending paper flying everywhere. But she didn't care. She couldn't care because she was late. _Horrendously _late.

"Excuse me! Sorry!"

She tried to ease the tension she was making between herself and the rest of the school, but it was hard, especially when more than half the school didn't like her already.

"Hey, no running in the halls!"

She, of course, ignored that warning and sped up once she saw a pair of doors leading to the outside world. That is until she felt something clutch at her collar and roughly pull her off of her path.

"Hey! I told you no running in the halls! I don't care if it's lunch time!"

"But sir, I—"

"Don't care. March your little butt up to the principal's office!"

A series of _ooh_s echoed down the hall as the girl was shoved in the direction of the principal's office.

"Well, Zhen? What do you have to say for yourself?"

Zhen-Khana twiddled her thumbs and squirmed in her seat at the question. She couldn't tell Principal V. _why_ she was late. And she couldn't' tell her _what_ she was late for either. She would have no proof for neither answers.

She shrugged and Miss V sighed.

"Zhen, this is the third time this month that I've seen you in that seat. And _yet again_, you have no explanation for breaking yet another simple school policy. Does that make any sense to you?"

Khana's eyes flickered around the room, everywhere but Miss V's face.

"Do you understand that that was your last warning for running in the hallways, making this your fifth offense?"

Silence.

"Do you understand that at five offenses, there's a penalty?"

Silence.

"Khana, you're going to have to say _something_. This isn't a conversation to be had with one person. I need to know if you understand what I'm saying here. This is your fifth offense and your grades are slipping beyond a grading system."

Zhen opened her mouth as if she was going to say something. But then she decided not to. Miss V sighed, pushing a button.

"Mr. Zhu, would you be so kind to send a messenger for the parents of Zhen-Khana Jin? Thank you." She turned to the girl. "You're starting to irritate me. If you have nothing to say, you can go wait outside the door."

Quietly, Zhen-Khana made her way for the door.

"She _what_?!"

"She's been skipping classes and arriving late, as well as disrupting the education of others and running around campus making a mess for the custodial staf. Oh, _and_ her grades aren't even grades anymore."

"I – I don't understand. That sounds like a miscreant or bully. But my sister? She would _never_ do those things. I mean, look at her. She can barely look people in the eye when spoken to. How does that merit –"

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Jin, but this has gone on all school year and we said nothing. The board decides what to do with each child and their talents and we simply feel that –"

"You _feel_? Oh, come off it. She's a child! She doesn't know –"

"Wanda, she is no longer welcome here." Khana's eyes widened and she them into the principal. "I understand your frustration, but there is nothing that you and your teaching degree can do to change this. She simply does not belong!"

The girl could feel heavy droplets filled with salt building up from behind her eyes and she dared not blink or they would fall. She could feel her heart stopping, her heartbeat absent from hearing.

"Zhen-Khana Zu, you are expelled from Ba Sing Se Academy for the Performing Arts."

All of a sudden it felt like she couldn't breathe because she would never come back to this school.

And she would never dance again.


End file.
